a few moments

For my thesis I plan to illustrate a short series of key moments between the two characters and their creatures as they grow up. I am not done with the designs, but  I did a test run of what these moments might look like for my character design class. Thinking of keeping them sepia tone, more like old photos of fond memories.

Work in progress

Here are some of my concept sketches for the two characters I am currently working on. Currently they do not have names. I wanted the two to be contrasting so I was thinking land and air. After some thought I settled on the girl and her creature, not flying but gliding and the boy a more terrestrial farmer type. 

 For the girl I imagined her as cave dwelling, so for her and her creature I was looking at lemurs, flying lemurs, and bat like things.

For the boy I was having a hard time deciding what I wanted, so I played around with some different ideas, but I ended up going with something strong and similar to a draft animals, such as horses, cattle and takins (look them up)

The Story

  Ok, So I have a backlog of work to post, but first a short overview of the story. Still working on this....writing is not my forte.          

           Rivalry is set on a neutral planet that over many years has been colonized by multiple races seeking a new home. The planet is vast and many of the inhabitants are isolated using their strength and unique abilities to work the land and make a living.

            Each year everyone comes together for a large market to trade goods, and share stories and news. Entire families make the trip each year including pets and work animals. Often integral to their way of life, the bond between child and animal starts young and lasts a lifetime.

            To celebrate seeing new and old friends, each year the kids race…. except for two…a boy and a girl…

            At their first market (about 8 yrs old) they are dubbed outsiders. Viewed as strange and different they are shunned from the race. Ostracized from the others, together they form a strong friendship and decide they will race one another instead…. a tradition they carried on ever since.

            This is my idea for an animated short that follows these two characters through vignettes of each year when they finally reconnect and race in their friendly yet competitive rivalry. 

     Hellooo World! Welcome to my production blog for my thesis, Rivalry. Who am I you ask? Well, while completing my undergrad at The Evergreen State College I was trying to figure out what I would do once I graduated. I have always loved film and animation, and knew I wanted to do something in those fields. After taking a creature design class between my junior and senior year of college I realized that designing characters and creatures (mostly) was not only a career option, but also what I really wanted to do. After completing my undergrad, I decided to pursue a career in character and concept art by continuing my education with an MFA in Digital Arts.


     As of now, I have officially completed my first year of grad school and successfully had my thesis green lit. To celebrate I am beginning this blog to keep track of my work over the next year of production.

     For my thesis I plan to have

- 4 modeled characters with textures, rigging, and lighting
-Model sheets and color keys
-4 simple illustrations of key moments between the characters
-1 environment painting

I also plan to do maquettes of the characters because maquettes are the best.